Spoof Plasmon Interconnects—Communications Beyond RC Limit

Abstract

The inception of spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) mode realized in planar, patterned conductors to manage light beyond diffraction limit at a chosen frequency garnered significant attention of late. We show that, an SSPP channel can be chosen to act in two distinct ways: first, as a regular RC limited electrical interconnect at low frequencies; and second, as an exotic, beyond RC limit communication channel near its resonant frequency by binding the electromagnetic field on its surface to the elimination of capacitance C. A dynamic transformation between these two modes can constitute an energy economic, tera-scale inter-chip hybrid communication network. We have investigated theoretical limits on the information transfer capability of SSPP interconnects. We show that, a geometry dependent tradeoff relation between cross-talk limited bandwidth density and information traveling length emerges in SSPP-based communication networks. According to our analysis, a bandwidth density of 1 Gbps/μm is attainable in SSPP communication network with ~10-mm information transfer distance, where each channel can carry ~300-Gb/s information with nominal crosstalk.